2013 Emmy Nomination Preview & Predictions: Lead Actor/Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

With the Emmy nominations coming up on July 18, I am posting predictions and analysis of each of the top categories.  Today I'm posting two categories.

Here are my predictions and analysis for:

LEAD ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH as Christopher Tietjens in PARADE'S END

Cumberbatch was a nominee last year for the Sherlock miniseries despite being relatively unknown.  The actor starred as the main villain in this year's Star Trek Into Darkness, getting rave reviews for his performance.  In Parade's End, Cumberbatch plays a WWI soldier torn apart by his love for two women.  It's a baity role and his raised profile in Hollywood should propel him to his second straight nomination in this category.  Even though the miniseries wasn't highly publicized, actors have gotten in for even less viewed productions in the past.  I'd say he's in for now.

Man of Steel (Snyder, 2013)

     Let's face it, the Superman reboot was bound to happen sooner rather than later.  After the success of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy as well as last year's The Amazing Spider-Man, Superman seemed like the natural path to go in as far as DC Comic superhero adaptations.  DC Comic adaptations are traditionally much more serious-minded than their Marvel counterparts, treating their superheroes as flawed men just trying to do their best to do good.  That's what Nolan did with his vision of Batman, presenting his caped crusader as a man haunted by his dark past.  Then again, Batman never had superpowers, so it made sense to tell a more human story.  With Man of Steel, it's clear that director Zack Snyder worked with Nolan, who served as a producer on the film.  The film is deeply rooted in drama from start to finish, treating almost everything with such deliberate seriousness that you almost forget that this is about an alien who was shipped to Earth and subsequently flies around in a cape and fitted suit.  This isn't to say that the film's style and substance are incongruous, but it's interesting to see after films like Iron Man 3 and The Avengers, which could almost pass as action-comedies in comparison.

1st Annual TeleFilmiest Awards - Nominations

I hereby present the 1st Annual TeleFilmiest Awards, recognizing the best in television from the 2012-2013 season.  There was a lot of great stuff this year, so this was a tough venture.  Nevertheless, here are my nominations in 24 categories:

BEST COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock
Arrested Development
Girls
Louie
New Girl
Parks and Recreation

BEST ENSEMBLE IN A COMEDY SERIES

30 Rock

Arrested Development

Girls

New Girl

Parks and Recreation

Veep

Mad Men - Episode 6.12 - "The Quality of Mercy"

Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and Ted (Kevin Rahm)                                                              Jessica Brooks/AMC

     Mad Men seems to be fully embracing its inner soap opera this season and more often than not, it hasn't worked well for the show.  Soaps are infamous for their glacial pacing, coincidental encounters and over-the-top melodrama, and all three of those elements have been present in Mad Men's sixth season.  Characters like Don and Roger haven't changed at all, there was an all-too-convenient merger that placed Peggy back with her co-workers after barely a season apart and the overbearing, unsubtle death motif has weighed down on the show.  Sometimes, though, soap operas can feature some of the most compelling character moments in narrative storytelling, and that's how "The Quality of Mercy" felt.  The amount of tension in this episode through both dialogue and lack thereof made this one of the most compelling of the season.  What I liked is that the characters featured in this episode either went too far, said too much or tried to put a stop to either of those things.  Peggy and Ted's work flirtation finally reaches unbearable status to everyone around them, Don takes advantage of a dead man to help salvage an account and the continued mystery of Bob Benson causes Pete to invest himself too deep.

2013 Emmy Nomination Preview & Predictions: Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

With the Emmy nominations coming up on July 18, I am posting predictions and analysis of each of the top categories.  Each post consists of predictions and analysis for one category.

Here is my prediction and analysis for:

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

JULIE BOWEN as Claire Dunphy in MODERN FAMILY

Bowen has won this category for the past two years, tying Eric Stonestreet for the most rewarded performer on the show.  Her victory last season was a surprise to most Emmy prognosticators, who assumed that co-star Sofia Vergara, SNL's Kristen Wiig or the recently deceased Kathryn Joosten would take home the trophy.  Her acting style and storyline clearly appeal to voters, which I certainly underestimated.  I mentioned in my Supporting Actor predictions that Modern Family would likely drop in nominations but Bowen is probably the safest bet out of all of the show's actors.

This Is the End (Rogen & Goldberg, 2013)

     Comedies tend to get second-class treatment in comparison to their more dramatic counterparts, especially among film circles.  There are reasons for this, of course.  Many comedies have one goal: to make the audience laugh, which tends to sacrifice anything resembling a story for pointless non-sequiturs and unnecessary fart jokes.  When I went into This Is the End, I didn't know if I would be treated to something of that nature, that would just seem like a half-baked idea Seth Rogen came up with to have a good time with his friends, or if it the film would have a fun, satirical edge that would lampoon celebrity culture and apocalypse films through a witty story.  As it turns out, This Is the End wound up being a little bit of both, and even touched on some weighty themes about faith in a way that never felt preachy or sentimental.

2013 Emmy Nomination Preview & Predictions: Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

With the Emmy nominations coming up on July 18, I am posting predictions and analysis of each of the top categories.  Each post consists of predictions and analysis for one category.

Here is my prediction and analysis of:

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

WILL ARNETT as Gob Bluth in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

Arnett has gradually become one of those rare comedic actors that can successfully act as the leading man or the wacky sidekick.  The role of Gob made him what he is today, and the Emmys nominated him for this role in 2006.  Seven years later, the revival of Arrested Development was met with mixed reviews, but few can deny that Arnett's performance is one of the best parts of the new season.  As I mentioned with co-star Jason Bateman in Lead Actor, I'm not sure how voters will embrace Netflix but I have a good feeling about Arnett at least.